


Synthesis

by GravitasDumpStat



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aphrodisiacs, Dungeon, F/F, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Genderfuck, Mostly Gen, Original Character(s), Original Universe, Other, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Sex Pollen, dungeon core
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2020-10-06 06:11:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20502209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GravitasDumpStat/pseuds/GravitasDumpStat
Summary: Follows the story of a barely amnesiac dungeon core and an unlikely group of adventurers.Mostly Gen so far, there is one very brief smut. Currently character building.Don't expect it to be updated, if I touch on things again it will be rewritten





	1. Prologue

They slowly absorbed their surroundings, making sense of where they were exactly. The quiet bubbling of passing water, the swaying of long grass, and the sweet scent of nearby honeysuckle somehow felt reassuring, and when the threat of being caught unaware by some terrible thread had receded, they centered themselves enough to more calmly make an inventory. Their vision was centered around some sort of open aired structure, and they could sense the heaviness of a stone slab pressing into their dirt. Worryingly, their center was imperceptible to them, like trying to feel the underside of your palm. Out of the brook came a slippery looking creature, with a whiskered face and small, sharp fangs. Focusing on the small little creature, they saw it stand on its rear legs and sniff the air before opening its mouth to reveal more terrifyingly sharp canines. Before they knew it, the little creature was flung, landing with a soft plunk into the water it had just emerged out of. They watched it slip away confused as to what had moved it, and returned to their mental inventory. Telekinesis, check. Come to think of it, Language, check. They had enough self-awareness to recognize that they probably had some type of amnesia, and felt the mix of worry at the prospect and relief at having at least some admittedly basic knowledge.

Come to think of it, they probably shouldn’t be out in the open, there was no telling what was nearby, and come to think of it, they had no idea how vulnerable they were to wildlife, except that they were just scared half to death by a small aquatic furball of some kind. Looking back at where the creature stood, they noticed that the grass was scooped out, and had an idea. Slowly they lifted the dirt around their center, moving slowly downward as the earth below was pushed to their sides. When they were at about eye level with the ground, they encountered a problem. They felt the mud covered stone and realized that their escape into the underground wasn’t exactly going to work as planned. Their work had tired them, and as they watched the sun set with unblinking eyes, they quickly nodded off into a deep slumber.


	2. Well, well, well

They woke startled further in the ground, and thought for a moment they were dreaming. It seemed almost as if they were tied to an anchor, and staring up from the bottom of a murky pond. A moment later, and after calming down, they stretched their senses and their surroundings began to be absorbed. The hole that they dug themselves down into had shrunk, and several thick, fleshy white vines had been snaked through the walls. Oh. The stone below them had them moving through too. I could feel them as they made their languid movements, slowly and strongly tearing through the stone, the ones above extruding the material to reinforce the opening above them. One had snaked its way uphill at the beginning of the rock, drinking in water after having hardened a perimeter around me; apparently, my central body doesn’t like water in significant amounts. That was good to know, especially when the clouds began to darken and the wind grew cold on their vines.

I decided at this point to close off the opening, banking on extruding a water proof material in a thin dome around the top of the breech. While the first rains began to drizzle down, I managed to focus on keeping the material up while my vines slowly dug deeper into the earth, until the opening had shut and my mind began to swim. My vision faded in and out, and I felt a sharp pain through all my sensory organs. The very center of the dome collapsed when my concentration was lost, and as the pain abated it was decided that I would indeed like to keep contact with the outside world. So, hurriedly changing the plan, I began to fashion a ring around the outside, and brought several small pillars up to hold the now completed dome above it. The pitter patter of the rain on the hard surface continued as I took my surroundings in further, having been given some breathing room. 


	3. The Alchemist (explicit)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains explicit content with a tag before it. If you don't wish to read it, it continues until the end of the chapter once the tag comes up. Thought it wasn't going to happen until a few more chapters in but inspiration (read lewds from GF) happened.

Apparently, the King is hunting again. “Cairistine, go to the butcher and get all the mutton this bag will buy you” “Cairistine, go to the wizard and get some more ice for the larder” “Cairistine, stir this, I’ll be back in an hour, if the surface starts to harden take it off the heat “ “Cairistine, you don’t mind staying late do you? The next hunting party is coming in soon” By the time this week is over, I am going to have enough tips to open up my own stand downtown, assuming she doesn’t take a cut of it, which knowing the shopowner, she most certainly would. 

The rush finally ended, and as I trudged upstream from the town, I felt a seething hatred for whoever invented teleportation. A moment of pseudo nostalgia passed, remembering when my parents talked about how the king used to only hunt around the capital. I wonder if they’ve managed to sell any of their wares. Their staples were simple, if well made, flax garments, but I still remember making the blanket in my pack, helping her dye the fibers before watching her weave complicated patterns as she slowly made the cloth. As the stream from town slowly became a brook, I took the book from my pack and began to search for the plants that I was supposed to collect in the area. 

“Lady’s mantle, a completely safe to handle plant with edged, circular leaves, known for collecting dew and for its small cluster of bright yellow flowers. Crushing the leaves and creating a tea from them is known to lessen pain and reduce menstrual symptoms. Mixed with the root of dragon’s tail, can be used as a local numbing agent that also sterilizes minor wounds” 

Great. So I remain an errand boy. Let’s see what else… ah

“Biting nettle, handle with gloves and store in a thick bag. Needles extract blood from those it comes in contact with. Concentric pairs of hairy, edged leaves rise to a purple flower. Needles are used as a precise form of bloodletting, and may be crushed into a fine powder to absorb poisons if ingested immediately at the onset of symptoms. Mixed with holy basil and ingested, may treat discomfort and pain for up to a week, useful after minor operations. Caution advised when handling the flower of this plant, as fever, hallucinations, and inebriation may occur, and last for up to a dozen hours. Consult your local cleric for more information” 

Ah. Well, something that looks like I’ll actually be taught something! After becoming a journeyman, I assumed the days of collecting ingredients while watching over the shoulder of an experienced alchemist were over, but after a few years, it seemed like I’ve simply graduated to collecting the ingredients for the cabinet. Occasions like this were rare, and I treasured learning my craft more directly. I came to a clearing, to survey the edges of the woods for the plants I required, before stumbling on a treasure trove of ingredients. Before I knew it, I was surveying the countryside, laying in the shade of an old abandoned well as I absentmindedly sorted the ingredients I’d collected into jars I’d brought along; Serpent’s bane, widow’s solace, Elder Primrose, Evening Dew, all within their neat little bundles. The wind blew pleasantly, and in the distance, I could see the beginning of fall in the outlines of the trees around town, still mostly green, with a thin halo of yellow just beginning to form around some of them. It would be tomorrow evening until I needed to be at the alchemist’s shop, and she probably expected me to spend the next day up here, searching high and low. To my knowledge, biting nettle was quiet rare outside the ley lines. I would have to hide the majority of what I’ve found, and stay out here rather late to avoid her discovering my secret, I thought as I began carefully packing the nettle into its jar, making sure none of the needles fell from the ceramic bowl containing them onto the blanket underneath as I packed them in. It’s a shame that I hadn’t brought any more advanced books along, as “The Alchemist’s Guide to Ingredients” mostly served as a reminder at this point. I removed my glove to grab an orange from my pack, and stared up at the sky. The clouds flew slowly past, as my mind drifted back to the nettle. Only up to a dozen hours? It had been so long since I’ve relaxed, and now seemed as good a time as ever to try. Of course I’ve gotten drunk before, but booze concentrated enough to do the job always tasted terrible going down, so I’ve shied away from it in recent years. Honestly, a tiny pinprick seemed much more tolerable, considering I’ve probably already been poked by these plants hundreds of times. 

The first thing I noticed was the flush in my cheeks that slowly built. My head began to swim as I continued to look up at the passing clouds, taking time to fashion in my mind a foreboding sorcerers tower, an elegant little sailship, a quiet mill alone atop a windy hill. As the sun began to recede from the sky, a dancing woman flew through the sky, and as it took form in my mind I remembered seeing my old friend Ceana dancing in the tavern with one of the passing soldiers during last new year’s festival. The way she moved with confidence still left its impression on me, how she had given off such an air of effortless grace as She’d led the half-drunk fool through the dance before returning to the lady’s column. I wished I had time to celebrate with her before she moved inland to begin her career as a cobbler, and I felt my stomach coil at the thought of running into her again when I finally had the proper knowledge to work somewhere a proper alchemist was needed. 

…EXPLICIT..

“Consult your local cleric for more information” Thrice damned gods, they should have been more clear in the book, because now my thoughts were swimming sinfully with thoughts of dancing alone in the tavern with Ceana, feeling her pressed closely to me as her hand pressed on my lower back, seeing the mischievous glint in her hazel eyes as she gently lead me right into a column, pressed her thigh between mine, and kissing me while hiking my dress up. I heard myself beg aloud as I felt her delicate fingers form a fist in my hair as she began to kiss down the side of my neck. Suddenly we were back in my bedroom above the alchemist’s workshop, and she was at my side, rubbing me through my underthings as I strained to kiss her, to wrap my arms around her and pull her impossibly close to me. I felt my release come embarrassingly quickly as she pulled down my garments to stroke my clit, and I felt her grind herself against the side of my leg as I let out a strangled gasp. My thoughts cleared, and the fog of my fantasy cleared as my breathing settled, and the fields of stars above me came back into view. 


	4. Seeds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> voyeurism averted (for now) and lampshaded

Surprisingly, I wasn’t as tired as when I’d used my telekinesis before. Either I was learning quickly or yesterday was a good warm up. I absentmindedly picked the pedals off of some sort of wildflower as I took in the surrounding landscape. I was lucky that the wind wasn’t blowing heavily while the rain came down, as even with the roof, even some water had gotten in. It had been absorbed by the vines, but I sensed that most of them weren’t designed for it. I’d have to increase the size of the roof. But that was a problem for another time. I directed my vines to dig further down, and to create a small alcove into the side. As the details of the changes were being hammered out, I reflected on my lack of direction. I was pretty sure that I had some relation to the trees, given that it didn’t appear I had any need for sustenance. On the other hand, I was able to move a lot more than the back and forth of the tree branches when the wind picked up. I willed a small digging vine into being and maneuvered it to take a small chunk of flesh from the nearest root system. What happened instead was the vine getting stuck onto one of the main bulks, and capillaries growing impossibly quickly to surround the new attachment. My dim awareness of the clearing expanded, almost like a streetlight had started to shine on the area surrounding the tree. After a few moments, I could feel the tree itself, the creak of its old branches, and its hunger. Something instinctual told me that I had entered into some sort of pact with it, as it sensed some underused resource I had accumulated and began to leech it away from me. I experimentally sent some tendrils to some of the grass in my immediate surroundings and was amazed by how quickly my limbs shot out to seize it. Knowing somewhere in my core that I had stumbled on something important, I began to reach out into the surrounding area, feeling a sense of wonder as my world expanded so quickly. It had become rapidly more and more disorienting, as a drank in new sights, new sensations, and I paused for a moment to take it all in 

Through the very tips of my new awareness, I saw a collection of structures further downstream. Someone else had built things larger than trees, and finely too, with textured stone and a variety of other supporting materials I couldn’t place… I wondered what the purpose of such creations was. Assuming I could find answers downstream, and feeling a vicarious hunger, I started combing through the soil with my vines, and finished my relocation so I could order my diggers to begin working their way down. Maybe I could extend my awareness to my kin, explain my uncertainty and hope it had the answers to the questions I had about my existence. As my mind drifted to a familiar ball of fur chasing a sleek looking creature through the stream beneath me, I felt a moment of embarrassment as my diggers breached the surface, and quickly began to fill in the hole before changing my mind and attempting to weave a fine mesh cover. It felt somehow meaningful to practice my skills like this, creating a soothingly patterned grate, and in case the well ever got too full, this would work to as a drain. I quickly connected to the surrounding vegetation to make sure nothing was coming, and, just as I’d finished, a _human?_ wearing flowing, baggy clothes and carrying a large bundle on their back made their way up the stream. Well, that opened a lot of questions, didn’t it? I watched as they searched for something along the stream banks, as they continued to follow the stream upwards, and occasionally whistled a charming little tune. They grabbed a small brightly colored fruit from a pouch on their back and tore into it, releasing little crunching sounds as they made their way into my clearing. They briefly took note of my entrance, and I felt myself grow dizzy until I felt their attention turned elsewhere, to some of the plants growing along the edge of my clearing. They stood still for a second, only their head turning as they took it in, before pulling out a glinting stone and beginning to snip off the tops of the plants 

_ Ouch _ It felt like getting pricked again, and again, and again, but I didn’t try to stop their activities for fear that they’d realize something was afoot. The experience was mercifully short, and they laid out some soft linen upon my grass near the tunnel before sitting down organizing their pickings. Interesting, I could feel their weight through the grass if they stood still long enough. I held my breath for a long while as they picked, and trimmed, and cut, sometimes while wearing a strange glove. After they packed their belongings away and looked up at the sky for a long while, they got out a book, flipping through a few pages, and setting is gingerly aside with a sigh. Returning to their pack, they pulled out a jar of purple flowers, carefully pulled one out with tweezers, and rubbed it on the back of their palm, before tossing it aside, resealing the jar, and lying down, staring up at the sky. The book read “The Alchemist’s Guide to Ingredients”, and as the human grew still, I picked it up and started picking through its pages, wary of creating too much noise and waking them, although I could hear them making noises in their sleep by the time I had gotten through the first chapter, labeled “from common and to deadly mistakes” There was a lot of stuff here, from the plants around me and their common uses to finding nexuses of power in the earth and extracting dragon venom. I finished parsing the “strange and magical creatures” chapter and was beginning to absorbed it when they started speaking in their sleep, begging for something; perhaps their sleep aid had strange side effects. I quickly returned the book to its “not floating in the air” position and thought on what I learned. A lot of the plants growing around me were found around ley line convergences, but according to the book I most definitely was not one of those, just like I’m not the stream next to me. The closest thing I found were coffin seeds, but those killed all life around them -and if anything, things looked more lively than ever- but I did notice some similarities. Mute grey, fleshy tentacles dug them into the landscape, creating unstable caverns and black, rocky towers for monsters to move into, and they were compelled to grow and kill more and more until someone located their coffin and set fire to it, or used a control crystal to turn it into their pet. Come to think of it, I suppose my vines really were more tentacle-y, at least the diggers. Letting my newfound knowledge sink in in, I quickly double checked that the structures downstream were not black rock, and decided to continue my exploration in that direction, following behind the human as they made their way back to wherever they came from. 


	5. The Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing more PoVs, what could go wrong?

Long marches weren’t so unpleasant actually. The runes in my armor kept me moving at a decent pace almost effortlessly, as my platoon marched in rows of five towards the steadfast of rebelling lord in the north hills. A few days ago, we were staging in the city garrison while the teleportation runes were being drawn, and I overheard a little bit more than was mentioned in our briefing. Our orders were to bring Lord MacGillean to the capital in order to face trial and execution. Our teleport was into the marshes a little bit south of the steadfast, into a local towerhouse. I could still remember the smell of burning incense and dust, somehow not overpowered by the horse manure and musk of decaying straw. While I had dreamt of being a knight as a child, I was thankful that the profession was reserved for nobility. I never could stand horses, and not just for the mess they made of everything. Have you ever seen a cavalry charge deal with a fireball? Mounted troops were effective tools, but in the era of fireballs they weren’t exactly a flexible one. Better to be able to scatter, and to not have to worry about a panicked pack animal under you when things went to shit. 

As the ground below our boots became rockier, I finally saw the hills in the distance, with the triplet towers of the lord’s residence poking out above the kingswood. Their lieutenant called the sergeants forward and pulled up a map of the area before zooming in on the valley running through the kingswood and gesturing paths into the terrain. They explained that our platoon was to seize the magician’s portal room and supplies while platoon A dealt with any resistance on their way to the noble chambers and C dispersed through the perimeter walls to prevent any escape attempt through mundane means. We were expecting an organized and seasoned garrison to be on standby within, so it looked like we might have a serious fight on our hands. Oh joy. 

I tried to keep a brave face for the corporals under my command, but I felt my mind race and felt my hand shivering as a readjusted my kit while on our way through the woods, though even with my nerves keeping me silent company, the trip was mercifully short. Before I even knew it, the red flare was up and the gate was breached. The guard within the entrance arch was sitting on a stool, and while trying to get up, was knocked off balance by a blast of wind that froze him solid as his body continued its momentum and shattered into several pieces. Thrice damned king’s magicians, the bastards were scary even with them on our side. By the point we had crossed the west courtyard, it occurred to me we weren’t going to encounter any resistance, as, if we were to, the pointman would have been stuffed past bursting with crossbow bolts by now, at minimum. We got to the teleporter room and had managed securing the magician's supply when we heard the explosion. I pushed a wide eyed conscript out of the way and pushed through the outer door just in time to see the tower slump, crumble, and collapse into the central courtyard. Before she went back inside and slammed the door, she smelt the sickeningly appetizing burned flesh, and retched on the rune circle the magician had just finished drawing.


	6. Remembering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, some violence and gore

That didn’t look healthy. One of the largest structures downstream released a burst of blue light before glowing a faint yellow and collapsing. The human took off running and I felt grateful that I invested so much energy in strengthening my diggers, as I kept track of her while she darted through the dense underbrush neared the edges of the structures. As she grew closer to the group, I saw the fire. The buildings were being burned. Spindly, robed figures spun ruins through the air in the town center while torches sailed through windows, and half naked bodies littered the cobble. She froze for a moment behind a thick bush as I continued to snake my way into the structures, feeling around for any sign of another being beneath. I could see her breathing heavily, before running off toward an untouched building. I refocused my attention on exploring, and I finally came along a dead zone of vegetation to hook into. Exploring further, I found myself digging into dense stone, as every which way leading toward the center was blocked off with it. By the time I had dug through the walls, the _ ?alchemist? _ started hurriedly poured foul smelling buckets together. 

I managed to connect to three different trees, one at the center of each courtyard. The first and second saw stone walls and archways, as well as stairs leading up to thick wooden doors. Now what would I need with a door and stairs? And how would I know what they were? Things kept becoming stranger and stranger, and it seemed the more I explored the more questions about what I was came into being. The third, once it finished integrating, felt a stabbing pain as the weight of tons of stone had ripped apart its branches and battered its trunk, flaying off most of its bark. I redirected the nearest digger to snake through the walls of the nearest structure, and dimly sensed the destruction above. A blast had turned the room into a crater, and indistinguishable organic matter coated what remained of the walls and the floor. Whatever was here, it was massive, and inarguably dead. While it didn’t have any visible tendrils, I suppose that it didn’t necessarily need them. It lived above ground, maybe it had other differences. Briefly considering that maybe this was simply a slurry of other human remains, I dismissed the thought, as the rest of the corpses I had seen along the way, no matter how disfigured, had a smorgasbord of bones within, and even fragments were absent. I pondered the implications of my nearest neighbor being dead for a moment, before turning my attention to a rolling fog emerging from one of the buildings near the outskirts of the town 

Screams came from the fog, jets of fire sometimes escaping it, the same armored men who lit the building scrambled away from it before the fog rolled over them, emerging to hack into their compatriots with swords and axes. I took a moment to watch as the alchemist slinked further away from the town before being spotted by a soldier, who shouted at her as he chased for a moment, before standing and releasing a crossbow bolt in her direction. I saw the terror in his expression as the bolt froze in the air a few feet in front of him, and I briefly considered seeing how quickly I could throw it before he turned around and ran in the opposite direction. 


	7. Fruitless

The screams cut through the stone as the magician’s chanting took on an ethereal quality. I sent out one squad each to barricade the non-courtyard doors before a red faced runner delivered a message to reinforce the portal room. The rest of the battalion would search for the duke’s associates –apparently the duke was killed in the explosion- within the town and the surrounding countryside. 

Well, the orders were a bit redundant. And my men were itching for a fight, but things could be worse. I could be in the far south, where even the fire runes provided in the standard armor would fizzle and I’d have to gather wood like a barbarian. Or invest a year’s wages for a shiny fire bauble that, knowing my luck, would guarantee an immediate transfer. Or we could be back decimating the royal fleets sailor’s after they refused to clear out the mermaid infestation in East Port. I still had dreams of the screams below deck. 

A shiver ran down my spine as I heard an all too familiar scream cut short, and the soft crackling of fire began to rise as a cacophony of shouts and screams rose up to meet it. Something was wrong. Very, Very wrong. The magician ignored their surroundings like usual, their black and gold mask faintly glowing under their heavy robes, their spindly arms outstretched drawing circles and their disembodied chorus of whispers echoing off the stone walls. When I met eyes with the runner to send him back out, they turned and ran into the transport portal. Fool must have thought having to run out there was riskier than going into a half finished portal and potentially ending up inside a mountain or who knows where. 

I left the second in command to protect the portal room and took the remaining platoon mages to the steadfast entrance. The gate swung open and a gust of hot air poured into the courtyard. The town square was up in flames, and the troops were putting the fleeing townspeople to the sword. A sergeant threw a torch through a tavern window before turning back to laugh with his fellows while a thick rolling fog emerged from one of the side streets behind him. As the mist came over them, some began to flee, others began to turn their swords on each other. All seemed terrified out of their minds, swinging at shadows, lampposts, and unseen phantoms as more and more fell to the chaos. 

Immediately I called for Reggie to bring up a protective barrier. I send Elise back to seal up the portal room, and the group laid down a wall of flame on my order as the fog pressed up against the protective barrier. I felt myself recoil for a moment as a man came running through, his flame projection glyphs flaring briefly before shorting out. By the time he exited the flame and fell on my blade, his skin was sloughing off. What the fuck were the magicians up to? This shouldn’t be happening. Teleporting back an extra fifteen minutes early wouldn’t exact help if we still hadn’t completed our objectives, and we were going to be dead in ten. As the melee grew closer, I ordered a round of energy bolts thrown out before we retreated back into the holdfast walls. 


	9. Rubble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some slight violence and gore

The castle gate held. The sounds of metal striking metal and people dying continued for a few hours, gradually slowing to crawl before I felt comfortable ordering my troops to stand down. We drew lots for watch and I began exploring the rest of the steadfast with a team of mages while most of the platoon slept in the barricaded portal room. A squad from platoon A accompanied the two remaining gates which were mercifully locked. I recalled them to the portal room and posted a guard on each entrance. 

Parts of the central spire had destroyed an old citrus tree. The stairs on the way were half melted near the top, and as we reached the main hall they were slippery with blood and flesh. As Elise cleared the rubble to get into the room we were met with a terrible stench, worse than the copper of the previous blood. A king’s magician drew runes in the blood and giblets smearing the floor and walls, its mask charred and its robe tattered. Black ichor dripped from its cracked hands as its nails carved into the stone floor. It looked at me and let out a gurgling hiss for a moment before turning back to its work. Where the ichor met the blood, the blood turned a sickly yellow, hissed and bubbled, and left a brown residue. The walls had all bowed inward and some lose stones had fallen onto the remains of the head table. The family banners- the ones that survived the blast- had fallen into the pools of blood. 

The whispers were stronger here. I brought Alex up to interpret. She shook her head. Great. So now we had a rogue magician speaking in either gibberish or a language our resident magically enhanced interpreter couldn’t put together. I motioned to put up a sound barrier “any idea what it is trying to do?” I looked at the group, one by one, and saw a mix of weariness, confusion, and apprehension. “Alright. Well let’s try asking it, shall we? Anyone know their name? “ Sigh. Alright. The mission’s execution didn’t require sending them back to whatever dark corner of the abyss they came from, so I suppose it was reasonable that command decided against giving us their name. But now we might be forced to deal with a rogue magician a thousand kilometers from the capital. I went up and tapped them on their shoulder. They stood up, straightening out, their body creaking as they turned their head in my direction. I could feel their gaze in the back of my skull, a sharp pain that grew as I began to speak. “This looks suspiciously like blood magic. Head back to the portal room at once, or I will be forced to make a note of this in my after action report.” I stuttered out. For a moment, I felt like we were all about to die, the way some ants might if they wandered into a meadow pitcher and just realized the precipitousness of the fall and the waxiness under their feet. 

The mages blood was cauterizing at the stump of their left arm before I could process anything. I felt my heart beat out of my chest as the arm was regrowing, and they were posturing to hit me with a spell with the other. I managed to step into the attack and drive my sword through their throat, letting go of it as their blood poured onto the handle and began to eat away at the wood. Survived an attack by and killed a king’s mage. Well that would make an excellent song to sing if one of us survives. 

“Anyone feel anything?” I barked, not feeling the distinctive shiver up my spine that would mark the scrying if it were to happen. After I was sure we weren’t about to get immediately murdered by a group of vengeful Magicians, I ordered a refractive barrier up and for the corpse to be incinerated. We then made our way down to the portal room. Thankfully, the rest of the platoon was still alive. The magician here still seemed to be functioning, and the gate was completed. Unfortunately, the dark magic artifacts we were supposed to be confiscating had all but disappeared. The Magician almost looked annoyed. They burst into flames and I shot Reggie a deathglare. Their body launched through the air and floated through the stone wall, and through an open window, we could see them dripping ichor onto the cobble as they made their way up the main street. 

The room erupted immediately. “Reggie you twice damned moron you’ve gotten us all killed” “Why don’t we just teleport back, make our report, and hope they show mercy?” “That *thing* will hunt us until either it is dead, or we are all dead, doesn’t matter what the crown thinks” “I say we go after it and finish the job” “Us and what army?” Alex shot me a brief glance before she pulled me aside, practically dragging me into the office of the former castle mage. “Sir, that isn’t a teleportation circle, it’s an evaporation circle. We can’t go back, not until we finish the proper runes, which would take a few days at least. Now I’m not sure if the second one’s wires were twisted just as bad, but this looks deliberate. The powers that be might have decided we’re to take a one-way trip. We really need to capture the Magician, alive, and find out what they know. With your permission, we should track them down and put them in a containment circle. From there we might be able to sift through their memories to find out what is going on.” 


End file.
